“Second part of autumn”Black-Red wants to improve working hours and inheritance tax
July 3, 2026, 8:33 am
Listen to the article(02:17 min)
The Union wants to weaken the eight-hour working day, the SPD is against it. (Photo: photo alliance/SvenSimon)SplitFollow along:
The federal government agrees to numerous reform projects to further growth. The Union and the SPD are postponing some controversial issues for now. This does not mean that they are excluded from the discussion.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed that the Union has not abandoned its demand for more flexible working hours. Merz told the capital’s ARD studio that the first part has already been agreed with coalition partner SPD, namely the extension of the permitted Sunday opening hours for bakeries, pastry shops and libraries. “The second part with labor legislation should follow in the fall. We still have to talk about this in detail,” said the chairman of the CDU.
In the coalition committee, the Union failed to pass a plan to replace the daily maximum working time with a weekly maximum, i.e., weaken the eight-hour working day. The SPD rejected this. This will likely irritate employers, but they will have significantly more flexibility when entering into fixed-term employment contracts. In addition, you must again cancel sick leave over the phone. This, in turn, particularly irritates trade unions.
Federal Finance Minister and SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil justified the fact that there should be no changes to the inheritance tax with a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, expected at the end of the year. “We may also have to respond to this politically,” Klingbeil said. The SPD has called for an increase in inheritance tax to provide greater benefits for people on low and middle incomes.
The federal government has agreed a 34-point reform package and wants to use it to lift the brakes on economic growth. Measures range from modest tax reform, relaxation of labor laws, significant reductions in bureaucracy, to a ban on the nationalization of private rental housing stock at the state level.